Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1898 — First American Beet Sugar. [ARTICLE]

First American Beet Sugar.

“The first beet sugar was made in this country in 1830,” states Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, “but it was not until 1872 that any considerable quantity was produced. In that year the total product was about 500 tons. This was increased in 1879 to about 1,200 tons. Then followed a falling off until 1888, when the production exceeded 1,900 tons; from that year down to the present time there has been a steady increase. Last year the total product of beet sugar in this country was about 40,000 tons. Wherever factories have been established farmers hate eagerly seized the opportunity to raise and sell beets. The price paid is about four or five dollars per ton, and the yield is so great as to bring handsome returns for the labor of raising the roots. The cultivation of beets requires care and conscientious farming, but with proper attention this industry is not only profitable to the capitalist, but the farmer also shares the benefit, and I do not know of a crop which offers such satisfactory returns. There are hundreds of communities all through the states where beet culture can be carried on which are anxious to engage in beet raising, and I am satisfied that if congress offers protective duties that the manufacture of beet sugar in this country will increase enormously within a very short time.” —Chicago Inter Ocean.